Some days we find it hard to quantify the impact of our interventions in the lives of the women and babies we serve in these communities. Some other days it is beyond what words can explain. Today’s event happens to be one of those days. For starters, these communities were really dry today so we didn’t face so much hurdles as we did in our last routine event in July due to the flood.
MOBILIZATION
Our mobilization strategy is still door to door as places of worship are still on lockdown till this coming weekend. We were however dazed by the number of people who turned up for our routine event in Sogunro. Word has travelled round since we visited in July, as our community volunteers mentioned earlier that some women were at the venue we regularly use during our antenatal visits before the pandemic, thinking we had resumed our biweekly visits and they had to let them know it’s once a month at the moment.
The sad reality is that 99% of the mothers and babies in attendance today had not accessed skilled healthcare since we last visited in March. They are only able to use our skilled healthcare services now we have resumed. We had babies who were only taking their first vaccination at five months, the ones on vaccination before we left were only able to continue today despite the fact that they ought to have been taking it. We were fully aware there would be challenges when we had to suspend our community outreach due to COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, we are glad we are back to work and maintaining our standard of practice to ensure we are safe and our benefactors as well.
Nursing mothers, babies and pregnant women in attendance during our health outreach in Sogunro Community Photo©️Alabiamo /2020/NayabaCosmos
SOGUNRO COMMUNITY The Sogunro benefactors turned up in large numbers. In keeping with NCDC guidelines, they came into the venue in batches as we we do our best to obey the social distancing rule and standard practice towards preventing the spread of coronavirus amongst community dwellers.We had three skilled health workers in Sogunro at first but had to pull two more skilled health workers from the other community because of the huge crowd we eventually recorded in Sogunro. We immunized 43 babies, 17 of these were taking BCG vaccination for the first time, we attended to 29pregnant women 16 of these pregnant women had their tetanus shots 14 of these women also had their recommended ANTIMALARIAL medication as it is mandatory by WHO for pregnant women in this part of the world. 5 of these women also got treated mosquito net. 5 nursing mothers received mosquito net. In all, we had 72 mothers and 43 babies in attendance in Sogunro that’s is aside women who came to indicate their interest in getting family planning service.
Photo©️Alabiamo /2020/NayabaCosmos
OKO–AGBON COMMUNITY
Oko-Agbon had 23 women in attendance. We attended to 8 pregnant women with basic routine antenatal care, antenatal drugs, 6 of them had their anti-malaria medication and 5 were given mosquito net. we were only able to attend to 7 nursing mothers with their babies with the required vaccination. We could not attend to the others because their babies were not due for the next rounds of vaccination.
Its world breastfeeding week 2020, and so we centered our routine health talk on the importance of nutritious meals for mothers, so they can give their babies the required nutrients for proper development through breastfeeding. Our skilled health workers who delivered the health talk also sited examples on the kinds of nutritious meals that can be easily accessible to the women within their communities considering their social economic status.
Photos
We had three skilled health workers in oko-agbon and they eventually had to join the Sogunro team in managing the surge of attendees towards the end of their work.
We appreciate all our donors and NOB Foundation who partnered with us on this event and joined us to work towards ending preventable Maternal and Child mortality and morbidity one community at a time.
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